Lost Girls

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What to expect

Praise for D.J. Taylor

'Taylor's biography is a persuasive and profoundly moving exploration of the ways in which Orwell's work was constructed from the stones of a ruined life - [it] is likely to prove in many ways definitive' Daily Telegraph

'Shrewd and absorbing in his analysis of the way Waugh and Nancy Mitford promoted the world they would soon skewer in fiction' Sunday Times

'Taylor wins the biographical contest . . . [He] is an accomplished literary critic and he illuminates Orwell's work in the context of his life elegantly and expertly' Guardian

'D.J. Taylor's enthusiasm, delivered with the zeal of a recent convert, proves there is fascination even in empty living and that the Bright Young Brigade of the 1920s are just as worthy of a book or two as . . . all the flapping 'It-people' of our own generation' Literary Review

'Taylor writes with such skill and aplomb that it's impossible not to be swept along by the intelligence and observations' Independent on Sunday

Critics Review

  • DJ Taylor’s new book is an exploratory and sometimes eye-popping slice of social history . . . Taylor is a strikingly versatile writer – novelist, critic, historian, author of the standard biography of Orwell, and the acerbic wit behind Private Eye’s What You Didn’t Miss column . . . If you have even a passing interest in human relationships and the imagination, you should not deny yourself the pleasure of reading it

    Sunday Times
  • DJ Taylor, who has previously written about the bright young things of the interwar years, makes a convincing case for seeing Sonia and her peers as a racier, tougher and far more intelligent group than has previously been allowed

    Guardian
  • Lively account of the chaotic way of life at the Horizon office . . . In Lost Girls, Taylor presents a colourful portrait of this fascinating, sophisticated and highly sexualised literary world . . . expertly narrated . . . excellent descriptions of the daily routine in the Horizon office . . . a remarkable work and an important addition to the extraordinary wartime history of literary London

    Literary Review
  • Entertaining, ever shrewd account

    Spectator
  • Enjoyable . . . an often very funny chronicle of fiendishly complicated and rackety love lives . . . infectious . . . deliciously readable

    Financial Times
  • Enticing . . . Like a private detective on an adultery case, Taylor eavesdrops in bedsits and furnished flats, lurks in Chelsea pubs and Soho dives, reporting in a style both elegant and deadpan. His text is crowded with throwaway gems

    The Tablet

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